Rekindling My Life’s Passion
I started this blog back in June and it dwindled out before it even got started. Not intentionally, but because I needed to focus on something else. Just a couple of days after I got back from the BookWise cruise I had an idea that I immediately began working on. It consumed my life pretty much up until now.
While there is still much to do with that project I need to start putting more balance in my life. In fact, you could say I am embarking on a life makeover. I’m trying to get back some of the basic habits I had before I became ill many years ago. Even my time management and home organizational habits have slipped. I’ve always gone at a fast pace, but I am feeling the urge to restructure my life to make the for those important things, and still accomplish everything I have planned because I have HUGE plans.
But first, let me tell you about the project I began. In July 2008, I was facilitating a women’s financial seminar for women in my local area. The seminar was created by my friend and mentor Richard Paul Evans. At the end of the presentation Richard encouraged the women to take something they had learned and share it with others. He also encouraged them to band together in support of each other. The combination of those two comments sparked the idea that I named Rich Women Sisterhood.
Sitting there that evening I asked myself how she could best do that, “How can I continue to support these women beyond this initial seminar?” “How can I develop a system that will continue to support them in not only changing their financial life, but in changing their life in other ways?”
When the mind is asked a question it answers, and often times it answers in a big way.
Luckily I was prepared for big ideas. In fact, I have learned to expect them. You see Richard had taught me to carry an idea journal with me to capture the ideas. He told me to always carry two books with you. One you’re reading and one you’re are writing. So I quickly pulled out my “idea journal” and jotted down the initial concepts of a supportive organization for women, the organization that is now known as the Rich Women Sisterhood.
Now as you know many ideas come and go. How many ideas have set upon the shelves of a restless mind until they are dusty and forgotten? I was determined to not let this idea settle in the dark crevices of my mind and lay there forgotten. I felt an urgency to start on it then. So I went home that very night and began building the Rich Women Sisterhood website.
In the process of creating the site I did extensive research to see what people were wanting in an online social network. I found that most online social networks designed for women were in fact created by men. I found that many women were wanting something more. They wanted a place where they could give back, where they could be a part of something bigger than themselves, a place that they felt at home. They wanted a place where they felt enriched and enlightened. They wanted to be a part of something that made an impact!
I soon realized that she was fulfilling a huge need. The response was huge!
Women gasped when I told them my concept and they quickly reached for a pen so they could write the domain name down. On man had a difficult time talking as he thanked me for starting an such an organization because, “It is exactly what my four daughters need.” Internet searches for the “Rich Women Sisterhood” were happening daily and the site wasn’t even open yet.
Because I really wanted to serve the needs of all women, not just the women online, I created the concept of a Rich Women Sisterhood chapter. What makes Rich Women Sisterhood unique is the fact that it combines an online social network, with a local community presence. Women can join either or both.
The chapter is a place where women come together to support each other in enriching their lives. Basically, the women can come together to do what enriches their lives. Some chapters may be formed by women who love to scrapbook, so they get together to scrapbook Other chapters may meet once a month for breakfast and listen to an inspiratonal speaker. Others will be Rich Women Dream EnRICHment Teams that meet with each other on a regular basis to help each other reach goals or be the best they can be.
To be an official Rich Women Chapter there are only two requirements said Leisa, “Apply for an annual charter and do two projects a year that enrich other’s lives.” “For a knitting club,” Leisa explains, “it could be knitting blankets to wrap dying babies in as their mother holds them for the last time. For another group it may be putting together a sub-for-Santa for a needy family, and for another it may mean mentoring younger women.”
As far as I know were are the first international organization designed to reach women of all ages, and fulfill the needs of women both online and offline.
All in all it look Leisame less than two months to put together a talented team of writers and editors, design the website, launch the BETA version, and begin to reach women. In fact, Rich Women’s website launched in a BETA on September 8th, 2008, less than two months after that initial idea hit the pages of my idea journal. The Rich Women Sisterhood team expects to build to an organization of tens of thousands of women world wide. In fact, the website is dedicated to Rich Women everywhere, and to my friend and mentor Richard Paul Evans.
You may learn more about Rich Women Sisterhood here.
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I sat down intending to make a list of some of my favorite things. My son came home from school with the song My Favorite Things running through his head. He wanted to clarify some of the wording so we sang it. That’s all it took for that tune to stick in my mind for the rest of the day.
